"span of centuries" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when referring to a long period of time, for example, "The history of this mountain range spans several centuries."
Through a series of speech permutations over a span of centuries, this name became Istanbul.
Mr Clark reckons that even in famously mobile Sweden, some 70-80% of a family's social status is transmitted from generation to generation across a span of centuries.
Today several Internet sites, including one operated by Sky & Telescope (www.skyandtelescope.com), have free online systems that can generate charts for any point on Earth at any time over a span of centuries.
The Bible is the most translated and enduring work of literary fiction, a genre-crossing compendium of psalms and stories written by many authors over the span of centuries.
In the 13th century Arabs used the appellation Istinpolin, a "name" they heard Byzantines use eis tēn polin which, in reality, was a Greek phrase that meant "in the city". Through a series of speech permutations over a span of centuries, this name became Istanbul.
Over the span of centuries, this had a very big impact.
The strong and simple graphic expression was formulated to convey the spanning of centuries, cultures, and countries.
However, long-term analyses, over time-spans of centuries, are needed to decipher: the processes controlling the occurrence of disturbances; their affects on ecosystem properties; and, feedbacks to disturbance regimes [3], [4].
Instead, over the span of more centuries, a growing influx of Arabs arrived and assimilated with the native African Nubian populations in the north, eventually transforming their local identities and Arabising them relatively peacefully.
In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the world.
In the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in Cusco.
